My Eternal
by Ethereal Vesper
Summary: At World's End. Mercedes comes to terms with the death of the one that is most dear to her. Based upon the True Ending. A Ingway x Mercedes Fanfiction.


**_My Eternal_**

**Author's Notes: Ah, I'm just coming off the game. And it's just so damned depressing. It doesn't help that I'm listening to Gackt's Last Song right now. If you haven't listened to that song, go download it somewhere. It's very beautiful and the chorus is just so powerful. Anyway, enough of my rambling, here's my ending to the Ingway x Mercedes story.**

-0.o.o.0-

He looked beautiful as he did at that exact moment, his body limp and lifeless, contrasting perfectly to the burning wasteland before her. She didn't quite know what she felt whether it was sadness, anger, or bitterness: the emotions hit her with such sheer force that she did not know what to do with herself. Crying to the heavens would, of course, prove to be futile in the end. No amount of tears would ever bring this human man back from the clutches of death's iron like grip.

"**LIAR!"**

She felt silly as the words left her mouth, as true as they were. Memories of the past swirled around her mind, as if she were seeing her entire life play out in a matter of moments. How she yearned for the simple days when her mother, strong and proud, shielded her from the cold reality that had plagued Erion. It mattered not in those days. She never knew of the death, of the hatred, of the war…they were not concepts that she had bothered herself with.

"You said…. you said we would meet again."She knelt on the ashen earth, her hands searching for the now nonexistent beat of his heart. "Oh Ingway, what have you done to yourself?" she questioned, allowing her fingers to trail the open gashes and scars that adorned his body. "What was it exactly that you were fighting so hard for?"

It wasn't fair. If she had arrived moments before, perhaps she would be able to stop whatever had taken place. He would be alive then, comforting her in the final hours of Erion's life. She had so many things that she had wanted to say, so many things that she had wanted to do.

She smiled.

How far had they come from the Forests of Elrit? She had thought him to be just another frog, simple fodder for the powerful psypher that she commanded. But without that chance meeting, things probably would have turned out much differently.

Mercedes knew all too well that she would not have lasted as long as she did without the frog's help. It was funny—he was so different from her in nearly every way, and, yet, they were one in the same.

He had come to protect her in the little time that she had known him, nearly getting himself killed at the hands of those damned sorcerers in the Titanita Sewers. That was where, of course, she had discovered his true form.

And where they would share their first, and only, true kiss.

And now he was dead. Dead like her mother. Dead like the forest that she had called home. Dead like the world.

How her heart ached for him. Defeated, she rested her head on his still chest. _This is the closest that I've ever been to you---Gods, I wish, I wish you could hold me just this one time._

"**You've become pitiful**." Mercedes recognized the intruding voice almost immediately. Though she had only met him only a few times, the last not on good terms, she could always pick out Onyx's rough tone. "You are a disgrace to your mother, the true Queen of Faeries. She would not lower herself---"

Something inside of her snapped. "SHUT UP!" Mercedes lifted her head, crimson eyes narrowing dangerously. "You have no right, Onyx, you who destroyed the forests!" Her voice was strong, stronger than it had ever been. For a brief moment, she glanced back down at the sleeping love beneath her.

"Ah, but isn't it a beautiful sight, _**girl? **_The Fire Kingdom shall rule over what's left of this world."

_Not if I have anything to say about it._ Resolutely, she pried herself away from the ground with bow in hand. "You forget about the prophecies, you fool. You will not survive this end either, you know."

The Fire King simply smiled, and with a flick of his wrist, he called upon the raging fires that had scorched her land, transforming him into the monster that he truly was. "Show me this world tree that the prophecies speak of, and, maybe then, I shall fear for my survival."

"Mother, lend me strength," she prayed softly, calling upon all the strength that she could possibly muster. Now taking to the air, she cocked back her weapon, allowing the psypher to gather all the phozons that it could possibly hold. "YOU WILL PERISH ONYX!"

-0.o.o.0-

Her body ached. The psypher of her mother's bow had shattered as she had laid the final blow upon the fire king. She didn't know how she had done. She didn't know how she had gone against fate. And, frankly, she did not care.

She had failed her people.

She had quite possibly failed her mother.

But none of it mattered. She only wanted to rest.

"In..g..way…" she stammered slowly, her body growing heavier by the second. "I really cared for you." She winced as she tilted her head so that she could face him. "I-I-I guess you could say that I loved you."

Another sharp pain shot through her very core. It wouldn't be long now. Her body would return to the earth, and her soul would be free to fly away.

"Oh earth, take me as I am; I renounce my given name of Mercedes…take me in my true form…Yggdrasil!"

With a final sigh, she felt her body shatter as if it was a mere doll, and slowly she felt herself rise off of the blood stained ground. It was frightening for the first few moments, but she quickly relaxed herself as became engulfed in a bright swirl of pink and white. Peeking though half open eyelids, she looked down at the earth below her. How very far away it seemed.

She was ascending to a new world, one that would be very different from the one that she had known. And new adventures were surely awaiting her.

But she was so very tired.

And just as she began to lose consciousness, she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her soul, bringing her closer to something very familiar. She could hear a soft laugh, warm and inviting, "Silly faerie, you are late."

"Mhm."

"There was something I wanted to tell you," she heard the voice whisper. "I lov-" The gentle words did not reach her in time, for as soon as they had been spoken, Mercedes had allowed herself to drift into a long deserved slumber, and everything faded to black.

"How exasperating."

He never did learn to get his timing right. There would be plenty of time to say all the words that had been lost to him during their time on Erion. "My little Queen, my Eternal."

**-End**

-0.o.o.0-

Author's Note (cont): Well since they couldn't be together in life…why not in death? I was thinking about ending this in a way that the two of them would still be separated and all (Ingway didn't necessarily lead the best of lives), but I think that the two of them deserve a break. The "True Ending" just made me so angry. There wasn't really any closure for them. BAH!


End file.
